Love is a Timeless Treasure
by Edward's My Obsession 1971
Summary: Continuation of Country Boys, written in memory of my husband of 25 years who I lost unexpectedly September 20, 2014. Jasper and Alice finally figured out they were meant to be together. Young love sees life through rose-colored glasses. However, life is never perfect, people make mistakes, and forever seems like a million years away.


**Love Is a Timeless Treasure**

**A/N: Hey guys. I have a new story, but really it's a continuation of an older story of mine. If you haven't read **_**Country Boys **_**you may want to go check it out first. It's a short, three chapter story, but if you don't, I'm sure you'll catch on quickly. It has been a rough year for me, on many levels, but the sudden loss of my husband of 25-plus years on September 20, 2014 was and still is, the hardest thing I've ever been through in my 43 years. He is the reason this story and **_**Country Boys**_** were written. Usual pairings, but Jasper and Alice are the main characters. Don't know how long this will be yet, and I have no set posting schedule, but it's cathartic for me to write this now so if it goes well, I'll keep going until I'm done. Thank you to Sarge's Girls, drotuno, and many others for having faith in me, and for encouraging me to get back in the writing saddle when I was ready and on my own terms. But most of all to my "girls" darcysmom, kare831 and cilie80 for their love, boundless friendship, texts, cards, phone calls and emotional support the past three months and the past several years before. Wouldn't write without you sweet ladies having my back, and I give you all the credit you are so rightfully owed. LOVE YOU GUYS! Honored to call you all friends. Man, it sure felt good to write again, so I hope you enjoy. And before you ask, no, it's not 100% factual, so please know that I am okay, but there is more truth than fiction in this tale. If talk of date rape is a trigger, you don't want to read this without skimming. PLEASE! It's not graphic or detailed, but heavily implied subject matter in this and a few other chapters. Okay? I'd love to know what you think. So I don't get in trouble, SM owns Twilight, but I own this story, and a beautiful black and red Twilight wreath Kare sent me for Christmas. No more long author's notes, I swear. Now, off you go…**

_**Love is a timeless treasure. No rules of engagement, only what transpires between two halves of a whole. It only takes a second to fall in love, and if you're lucky, years to enjoy your lives together. Sadly, there is no time frame to recover from the loss of it. Sometimes, you never do. **_**Dedicated to my soul mate and the love of my life; my sweet husband, and father of our two children, Layton. Gone too soon, but never forgotten. Living in my heart always. **

Chapter one: Angel

_JPOV_

Christmas Eve 1988

My palms were sweaty and my heart felt like it would burst from my chest. No amount of internal pep-talking, cigarettes, or deep breaths helped my current state of mind and the bubbling insecurities about my future. My jeans pocket weighed heavy with the Christmas gift I'd worked my ass off for and hand-picked the second I saw it for Alice. Why was I so fucking nervous? I'd managed to play it cool all day, laughing like I didn't have a care in the world, spending time with my family and enjoying my first Christmas with the love of my life, but inside I was a nervous wreck. The time was here, and the normally calm, cool Jasper Whitlock I prided myself in being couldn't wait much longer. We'd opened most of our gifts a few hours ago, and now I was wearing out a path in the dated gold shag carpet of my bedroom, waiting for Alice to finish helping Granny clean up after our meal so I could give her the last gift in private. I'd told her to go ahead, that I had a few things to do in the basement, and to come join me when she was through. I needed to go over my game plan again. This had to be perfect. I was a fucking mess.

To say Alice and I had a rough start to our relationship would be a grave understatement. She was best friends with my cousin, Bella, who was dating my best friend, Edward. I'd almost ruined our chances from the get-go, with my drunken antics over a year ago at a high school keg party, and following up with an equally shameful attempt to charm her on New Year's Eve, all the while not knowing the extent of Alice's past. The mental, emotional, and sometimes physical abuse, she'd been subjected to at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, James was unspeakable. And the forced sex … God, I felt a white hot rage surge through my system as the memories of a broken Alice I didn't allow to exist resurfaced … the word _rape _playing on loop in my brain. It was hell at first, and had taken months of careful planning, and sometimes painful physical patience on my part, and a lot of tears and trust issues for Alice and I to move past the damage he'd caused. James Hunter was a monster, and he would get what was coming to him; someday, somehow. I hoped I was privy to a front row seat, if not being an active participant when the shit went down, even though I'd promised Alice to let it go.

We had great friends and a tremendous support team in Bella, Edward, Emmett and Rosalie, and being a part of the whole, and not a fifth-wheel was a nice change for us both. We weren't always out in a group setting anymore, each couple desiring privacy at times, but without them in our lives, I don't know if we would have been able to overcome so many obstacles. In the grand scheme of things, Alice and I were meant to be. I felt it in my bones.

"The meal was great, as always, Granny Whitlock. Thank you for having me over," Alice said sweetly before closing the door and carefully climbing down the steep stairs to the basement.

I stepped out of my room, and stopped in the middle of the den to meet her. When Alice cleared the last stair, and came into view, I was temporarily overcome with the depth of love I had for this woman. To me, her beauty was unsurpassed, with long, straight hair that shone in luminous shades of brown and auburn even under the harsh fluorescent lights, and deep brown eyes that twinkled as she hummed a familiar Christmas tune, but nothing beat the smile that graced her face when our eyes met. A smile that was there because of her love for me. I was one lucky son of a bitch.

"Hey. Sorry, but I couldn't let Granny cook the meal and do the cleanup too. I'm all yours now."

_**Oh, dear God. I hope so. It's show time.**_

Alice walked the final few feet to meet me, and I never took my eyes off her as I reached blindly for my boom box on the coffee table to hit the PLAY button. As the familiar strains of _Angel_ by Aerosmith began to play, I pulled her gently into my arms.

"Dance with me," I stated, not as a question, but as a need to convey my emotions without blurting out my intentions. Alice nodded and tucked herself under my chin, wrapping her arms around my neck. It was hard to tell where I ended and she began.

_You're the reason I live._

_You're the reason I die._

_You're the reason I give when I break down and cry._

_Don't need no reason why. Baby, baby, ba-yay-by._

_You're my angel. Come and save me tonight._

I sang softly with Steven Tyler as we swayed to the music, the words meant for Alice, knowing she was my angel, sent to save me, and that my life had been a dark and lonely place without her. As the song came to an end, I stepped back and slid the green, felt box out of my pocket as I settled down onto one knee. It was a cliché move, but damn it all, she deserved the fairy tale. Alice was momentarily stunned by the abrupt change in position but her hands covered her gasp when realization set in. My eyes never strayed from hers, even when the tears threatened to fall. Mine and hers.

"Alice Brandon, this past year has been the best of my life. You didn't have to give me a chance after all the times I had my head in my ass, but thank God you did. I love you, baby, and I want to spend my forever with you. Will you marry me?" I asked fervently, my feelings on my sleeve and my heart in my throat, as I presented Alice with the open, green felt box that held a cluster of small diamonds set on a thick ring of gold. A thousand thoughts flooded my mind as I waited for her answer.

I'd picked the ring out instantly when I went to the little jewelry store in July, after only five months of being exclusive with Alice. I knew when I told Bella my feelings that February night under the security light in my parent's yard, and Alice and I weren't even together yet. I promptly set up a payment plan to pay it off before Christmas. I'd gotten an extra job at the college print shop over the summer, which substantially cut down on my free time with Alice, with the intent to pay for the ring, and to secure and set up a piece of land on my family farm for us to make our start. Suddenly I was nervous as hell. I'd never said anything to her anything about the land so I guess it would be a place to make my escape to if she said no to the marriage or the location.

Alice didn't come from money. In fact, her family struggled financially after the stove plant in town closed in the early eighties. Mr. Brandon was a proud small-time farmer of tobacco and row crops, who would never ask for a hand out, or assistance. He never graduated high school, being drafted to the Army the summer before his senior year and promptly shipped away in the Korean Conflict, so his employment options were minimal in our small town. So, he farmed during the day, and worked afternoons as a custodian at the local college to provide the essentials to his family. Mrs. Brandon was a housewife, taking care of Alice, Jane and Alec, as well as paying the bills and the household duties. They were in their early thirties when they married, so that was the norm for the Beaver Cleaver era they both grew up in. The family didn't want for basic needs, but they didn't have much available for extras either way.

My sweet girl rarely complained, but I knew when she was embarrassed about her lack of designer clothes and trendy trinkets other girls her age had. I could always tell she was having a moment when she fidgeted with her clothes and tried to fade into the background when we went out. In fact, on one particular occasion, my mama offered to buy her a dress of her choice for her senior prom when her parents had said it wasn't something they would be able to give her due to money being tight after a disease had killed most of Mr. Brandon's winter wheat crop, but Alice adamantly refused. I would have been the proudest fucker in the place, with Alice on my arm, but we went to her biggest high school event, and watched her classmates parade through Grand March in their finery from the bleachers of the tackily decorated gymnasium. I caught the wistful look in her eyes more than once when she didn't think I was looking, but I bit my goddamn tongue to keep the peace. Being from a family who had plenty, I tried my damnedest not to be frustrated with Alice's strong will about being cared for. I wanted to be that man for her. I didn't care what she wore, but I had to make sure anything I bought her that didn't come from Wal-Mart coincided with a birthday or some other special event.

Even though it made me more than a little pissed off, I tried to be supportive when Alice had forgone college after she graduated, and was working part-time as a nursing assistant at the nursing home, so she would have money of her own. "College can wait a few years, Jazz. There's no rush," she'd said, and being the pussy-whipped guy I had been told I was by likewise pussy-whipped Edward and Emmett, I'd conceded the argument to her wishes, for now, anyhow. My girl was smart, and she deserved to be whatever she wanted to be, and that meant college. Our last bone of contention was the death trap she still drove. I'd seen demolition derby cars in Aro's junkyard with more potential of being street-worthy, and when she was my wife I'd see to it that the Ford EXP met its demise. I hated that car.

"Oh, Jasper. Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you!" Alice exclaimed, drawing me out of the recesses of my mind. Tears trickled down her sweet face as she smiled and held out her shaky left hand, and I wasted no time sliding the engagement ring onto its rightful and perfect place.

I rose from my kneeling spot, and Alice leapt into my arms. Chaste, closed mouth pecks soon morphed into deeper kisses with tongues and teeth and moans when she wrapped her legs around my waist. The heat from her core was right there … all but burning my skin through our layers of denim and causing my cock to twitch in appreciation. Alice felt my honest and expected reaction, and ground herself onto my erection accordingly, since her need seemed to match mine.

"Baby, you've made me the happiest man alive by agreeing to marry me, but you're killing me right now," I sputtered between kisses. Our sexual relationship may have taken a while to take root, no pun intended, but once it did and although it was as vanilla as sex could be, we indulged as often as my condom supply would allow us, but mostly from the cab of my pickup truck on a deserted country lanes or on a blanket spread out under the stars in an open field. It was fucking December, and there was three inches of snow on the ground, with more coming down, so our outdoor options were limited at best. Granny was likely to decide we had been alone too long or she needed to come down here to get something inane from her laundry room and could appear at the foot of the stairs at any moment, so here wasn't an option without a distraction tactic. Alice still lived with her conservative parents and two younger siblings, thus the reason for condoms and no birth control pills. She was old enough to get them without parental permission, but she feared her Mom would find out and keep us apart, or someone from her church would see her getting the prescriptions filled. So, I'd be the Trojan Man as long as we were together. I'd buy them gladly for the tradeoff of being able to make love to my girl. I'd only seen Alice's room once, and that was when she'd got her mom to agree to let me help her move her dresser across the bedroom. The door had to stay open, and we had to be done in thirty minutes, before the siblings came home from youth group at church, and before her dad woke from his nap. All was totally above the board until I decided to cop a feel when she bent over to move her throw rug, which resulted in my hand in her panties finger-fucking her to climax while she contorted her body to suck me off in the quickest, quietest, most dangerous make out session to date. My girl was limber. Since that day, I won't lie and say I haven't fantasized about fucking her, loudly, on her pink-afghan covered twin bed with her parents just down the stairs unaware.

"I need you. Please, Jasper," Alice mewed, the want emblazoned across her face as she worked to slow her erratic breathing. I couldn't deny her this or myself any longer. Coming in your Levi's on your engagement day wouldn't be something to tell the grandkids about years from now. I took a quick glance at the clock. We had to be at her grandparents in the neighboring county at seven. It was five-fifteen.

"Go to my bathroom. Start the shower, but leave the door unlocked. Give me five minutes to work on Granny," I plead, praying my plan worked. I didn't care if Granny caught me making love to Alice, but Alice would.

"What? Sex HERE?" Alice shrieked.

I kissed her hard, and grabbed her hand, placing it on my throbbing erection.

"Your sweet ass, naked, and in my shower. Five minutes. Go!" I growled.

Alice blushed and scampered off like her life depended on it. The bathroom door slammed, just as the basement door opened.

Here goes nothing.

"What's going on down there? Jasper Dale Whitlock, you better answer me!" Granny bellowed from her lofty perch. I slid quietly to the door leading out to the garage and opened it slightly before shutting it loudly enough to appear as if I'd been outdoors unable to hear her hollering.

"Granny, were you looking for me?" I asked in my sweetest grandson voice. "I was outside seeing how much snow had fallen."

"What the hell is going on, boy? I hear water running. Don't make me have to come down there and chaperone you two. I won't have any hanky-panky going in in my house and your weenie better be in your pants! And why is Alice in my shower in the middle of the day?" Granny prattled on and on.

I went to the foot of the stairs and leaned casually against the wall.

"Keep your drawers on, old woman. If we wanted to have sex, we would, with or without your permission. We are both of age and you ain't with us round the clock. Furthermore, she just said yes to my proposal, so we are practically married now. But, since you're gonna have a stroke worrying about where my impressive penis is or has been here's your story. We've got her family dinner in a little while, and she felt sweaty after helping you clean up the kitchen, so she's taking a shower in MY bathroom before she changes into one of the outfits I bought her for Christmas. We leave in an hour. Now, pray tell, why is that an issue for your soon-to-be-granddaughter-in-law to wanna be clean?"

Now, Granny was a hard woman, who grew up poor as Job's turkey in post-Depression times, but I was her firstborn and only grandson, the apple of my departed Papa's eye. She talks a mean game, and can curse as well as she quotes the Scripture, but after I almost died after my three-wheeler accident in middle school, she prayed, hard and often, for God to let me to live and for her and Papa to live long enough to see me fall in love, marry, and carry on the family name with babies of my own. Papa died a few months before I met Alice, so he never got the chance to meet her, but now his legacy would hopefully live on, and Granny would now likely be around to witness it. I heard her sniffle once, then clear her throat.

"Well, all right. I guess I can't blame her for wanting to freshen up. She worked hard up here, and seems like a good girl. Treat her right. Know God is watchin' you, boy, and you reap what you sow. Now I've got things to do, so see you lock up when you leave."

And with that, the basement door closed with a resounding click, and when I picked up the extension phone not thirty seconds later, sure enough and as I figured the case, I heard her burning up the party line with my engagement news to her bridge partners, Beulah and Ethel. Old lady gossip was good for at least an hour of privacy.

Success!

Billows of steam enveloped me as I opened the door, and I could make out the silhouette of my curvaceous fiancée lathering her hair through the frosty glass shower doors. The shower radio was turned on to a local rock station loud enough to hear over the roar of the water. I stripped as quickly as possible, and locked the bathroom door before stealthily sliding open the shower door and entering the closest thing to heaven a guy like me had ever witnessed. My girl was singing along with the radio, totally unaware of my presence, her eyes shut to keep the shampoo from running into them. Rivulets of soap ran erotic paths down her slim body, slick with water. I stroked my cock appreciatively as I enjoyed the view. I'd been naked with Alice many times, but most of our trysts were after dark, so dash lights or moonlight were our main illumination. This was beyond anything we'd shared before. The dim overhead light made Alice's engagement ring sparkle as she rinsed her hair clean of any residual shampoo, and the emotion I felt was primal and possessive.

Mine.

And I wasn't waiting to claim her any longer.

I joined her under the spray and kissed her with wild abandon before she had a chance to yelp out in surprise. Our hands grappled and touched each other anywhere we could reach with a desperation borne of our love and Alice's fear of being caught. When we parted long enough to take a breath, my fingers slid through the damp downy hair at her center and I sank two fingers into her heat, my thumb applying just enough pressure to her clit, and I almost came with how wet she was already. Alice's throaty moans were hot as hell, but her eyes bellied her overwhelming state of insecurity. I had to nip this in the bud, before we stalled too long and DID get caught. I wanted her here … in my shower. Right the fuck now.

"As long as we're quick, and darlin' its gonna be quick 'cause I'm too damned worked up, we won't get caught. Relax and let me take care of you." She nodded franticly as I worked my fingers in and out at a steady pace, making sure she was ready, bringing her to the brink before backing off. Foreplay was something so elemental, so instinctual that I quickly learned about Alice when we first became intimate. That fucktard, Hunter, didn't care if she was aroused or not when he took what he wanted from her, and the subsequent pain from his intrusions was something she thought was normal, until I showed her differently. I'd love to cut off his pencil dick with the jagged edge of my survival knife and feed it to him, although it probably wasn't big enough to choke on. I shook my head and focused on the here and now. My present love and future wife, wet and willing in front of me, and I was going to fulfill a fantasy.

"Turn around and put your hands against the wall. I'm going to take you from behind, baby. It's too close quarters to try this any other way," I whispered. Alice followed my instructions as I changed the trajectory of the shower head to fall behind me and assumed my position against her sexy backside. My cock stood long and proud as it grazed the cleft of her ass.

"From behind like that? No, no, no. Last time, it hurt really badly and I begged for him to stop!" Alice shouted in panic before shrinking into the corner.

_For the love of all that's holy. Talk about erection-deflating-pre-first-time-shower-sex conversations …_

"I meant I'll be behind you. Not shoving my dick in your ass. Christ, Alice! You don't just do … that. Fucking hell! I. Am. Not. James!" I exclaimed, slapping the wall in exasperation.

Not that the idea of having Alice that way hadn't crossed my mind, but she was nowhere close to ready for that step. Not today, or anytime soon apparently. Another thing I'd found out about Alice and sex: never assume she knows what you're talking about. Missionary was about as in depth as her think-bank went sexually. Case in point. Her innocence was endearing, most of the time, but our time and my patience were waning. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to ground myself. Fucking James and her _fucking_ James before me never went away.

"I'm sorry! I didn't understand what you meant. Please, don't be mad at me," Alice cried out, balling up in a squat as far away from me possible as huge tears fell from her eyes.

Now I felt like the fucked up asshole I should feel like. Alice still had issues. Anything new threw her off without explanation, and with me standing tall over her acting like a mad man as she cowered, I appeared like a predator. She'd been degraded, knocked around and used by a worthless excuse of a man. And I just used _his_ name in our sexual moment as a reference point, as a threat. I knew this, yet I belittled her for lack of knowledge, my poor choice of words, and poorer judgment in handling myself.

Mood officially killed. Dead.

"Baby, I'm not mad. I promise. Come to me, please?" I begged holding an open palm out to her. I hated seeing her fall apart like this, and I'd unfortunately seen it, more than once. Gouging my eyeballs with rusty icepicks was a million times preferable to seeing this shell of the woman I love. My fault. All of it, even if the catalyst occurred long before we met. I knew. I reacted poorly, just for the sake of not getting some tail when I wanted it. Whoever the hell said a real man doesn't cry, never had a good reason to, and I was unashamed of the tears running down my face.

Alice whimpered as she slowly placed her shaky left hand that now sported my ring, shaking for an entirely different reason than when I slipped it on her finger not an hour prior, into mine and I hoisted her slight frame from the floor until she was standing, but made no move to draw her near. She was so small, and I wanted, no needed, to protect her. I also needed to talk to a professional as to how to help Alice without pushing her away and on how to work on my impatience with her, because a future without her was no future at all. When her doe eyes met mine, I nearly broke because she was still shaking, still terrified of what I was going to do.

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry I scared you. God knows that wasn't my intent. I love you so much; it scares the hell out of me sometimes. But I'm human, Alice. I'm gonna fuck up. Over and over. I ask you to not give up on me, please. I'll fight your demons with you, and help you all I can. I need you, so much, and right now I just wanna hold you. Is that okay?"

Alice snuffled and took the one step needed into my waiting embrace, and I breathed in her scent while kissing the top of her head. Progress, one step at a time. Everything I needed in life was right here, in my arms. This was enough to sustain me for the rest of time.

The water began to cool, and I didn't want Alice to catch a cold, so I turned off the spray and without letting go of her trembling body, reached out to the rack for a soft towel. I silently dried her from head to feet, reverently worshiping her as unselfishly as I could, hoping she knew in my actions what I could not form into words in this moment. No words were said when she began to dress as I toweled off and redressed. When she was finished, she turned to me.

"I love you, Jasper. Never doubt it, but I need to ask the same of you as you have of me. I'm messed up, and I need to know you aren't gonna give up on me too. You are my life now and I want to be your wife, your mate. Wholly, and in every way possible. I want our happily ever after, but only if we can make it work together," Alice said softly.

I cradled her face in my hands,

"Together, always," I answered, and bent down to kiss her sweet lips. "Now, finish drying your hair and with your hair-poof thingy. We gotta go announce an engagement. Maybe your dad won't kill me."

I had asked for his and her mother's permission prior a few weeks ago, but of course Alice had no clue. I got permission, without issue, but her dad informed me that no man would ever be good enough for his baby girl. That someday I'd understand what he meant. Alice worked her hair magic and in just a few minutes, she looked radiant with my ring on her finger, and in the Guess jeans and red Guess top I'd bought her for Christmas.

"I hope he doesn't kill you, too. After tonight, we have some making up to do, if you know what I mean. I still want you, bad. Maybe just the normal way this time?"

I laughed as the hovering sexual tension had finally left, replaced with my happy, slightly horny Alice, at least for now. I loved vanilla, and slowly we'd add some sprinkles. Alice's resounding laugh made my heart swell with happiness. I'd have to remember to cause that sound more often.

"I'll take you any way I can get ya, baby. There's always the Chevy. It has a damn good heater," I said with a wink. "I know a nice, secluded place just down the road from your house."

"Come on," Alice said as she grabbed my hand. "The quicker we get through this family thing, the quicker you can show this place you speak of. I don't know if I can wait much longer."

Because of our impatience to leave my house earlier in the evening, and forgetting all the stores and service stations were closed for Christmas Eve, we turned a blind eye to the empty box of Trojans in the glove box. There was no stopping the freight train once it skidded off the tracks. We made love, fast and furious, in the cab of my old pickup within eyeshot of Alice's front porch light.

We didn't know it at the time, but our lives were about to permanently change.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO


End file.
